Anything you recognise isn't mine.

"Wait, what?"

Slate didn't mean to sound as abrupt as he did when those two words left his mouth, a moment after what Glynda had said clicked in his mind.

"Y-you're my mom?" Slate blinked again, looking up at Glynda, who had dropped the glare and was looking at him with a softer look in her eyes. It was just now that the son of James Ironwood noticed that Glynda's eyes were extremely similar to his, both in colour and, funnily enough, the shape of their eyes. Though the shape of her eyes were slightly harder to decipher, since her eyes were behind glasses, while Slate's were not.

"I am." Glynda replied, simply. She continued to gaze steadily at Slate, but the glare that she had fixed him with, moments earlier, was gone. "You're... not upset?"

"Um..." To say that Slate was finding it difficult to get the words out would be an understatement, as well as accurate. "No, I'm not upset. But... but I have questions." he replied. "Several. I mean, mother? Can you grasp how weird that must sound to me, you just thrusting that on me?"

Glynda looked down for a moment, before looking back at Slate.

"Yes, I suppose I can." she replied. "I understand that you're likely shocked and confused, Slate-"

"I mean, I kinda am." Slate remarked, under his breath. "I would probably add 'curious' to that list of emotions I'm feeling as well."

"And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have." the blonde Huntress continued speaking. "Within reason, obviously."

"Uhh, alright." Slate replied, looking down at himself before back at Glynda. "Why weren't you around when I was a child? Why did Dad never even talk about you, apart from the briefest of brief mentions?" He swallowed, before continuing. "What was going on between you and Dad before I was born, if I never saw, or even heard of, you before now?"

"Almost never talking about me sounds just like James." Glynda remarked, under her breath, but barely loud enough for Slate to hear, before she looked up, back at her son. "Those... those are all definitely valid questions, Slate." she spoke, calmly, while standing up and walking over to her son. "I suppose I'll start at the first question you asked."

Glynda pulled up a chair from the desk closest to Slate's, and sat down in it, beside her son. Said son resisted the urge to move away from Glynda, as she was pretty close to him for someone who, up until a matter of minutes ago, was Slate's teacher (in his own mind) and nothing else.

"General Ironwood and I..." Glynda spoke, slowly. "We were married, for several years in the past. For around ten years, with us having dated since around the time I graduated Atlas Academy. We were really happy together, for the most part. I mean, we didn't have much time to be together, with him being busy being promoted to top General of the Atlesian Military, and being Head of Atlas Academy, as well as the two Atlas Council seats that come with that, but we made do with what time we had, and we were happy."

"Well, that's good to hear." Slate replied. "What happened, then? I mean, as I said, I never met you when I was a kid, so something had to have happened, right?"

"Yes." Glynda replied, simply. "You could say that. We started running into problems in our marriage when, in response to certain events, James began taking measures in the Atlas military that I..." Glynda paused, as if she was thinking about what to say next, and choosing her words carefully. "I didn't agree with. At all. Things that I, and others, thought were inhumane. And wrong."

"What kind of measures?" Slate asked. Glynda looked back at him, the sharpness back in full force for a fraction of a second, before her eyes softened again.

"I'm afraid those are classified." she replied. "Plus, I haven't heard much about the specifics of those measures since before you were born, so I wouldn't know how things have progressed since then." she sighed. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Slate replied. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Glynda continued talking before the words could leave his throat.

"The measures that James began taking drove a serious wedge between us." Glynda spoke. "The fact that he stood 100% behind the actions that he was taking, and refused to take any advice from anyone that opposed his thoughts on how to do things, didn't help matters either. His intentions were always good, but-"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions?" Slate spoke, before his mother could finish. "Hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works? I've heard Raven saying things like that a few times." He looked over at the window, then back at Glynda, whose face fell slightly at Slate's mention of Raven. However, she still nodded.

"Yes, you're right." She replied. "The wedge grew and grew over time, and things got to the point that we were both considering divorce." A saddened expression came over her face at the mention of the word, as she kept talking. "It was something we both didn't want to do, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't prevalent in both of our minds. Eventually, we came to the decision that we could try and have a child, as both of us had heard that it's brought couples closer together."

"And that's where I come in." Slate mumbled. "Or come out, right?" Glynda let out a quiet chuckle at Slate's little joke.

"Yeah." she replied. "Unfortunately, things didn't work, even with you in the picture, and we both decided to formally separate. Compared to other divorces I've heard about in the past, I could say that ours went relatively smoothly, except for one thing. And I'm sure you can guess what that thing is, and how it turned out." Slate didn't reply: instead electing to just look down at the floor for a few seconds.

He knew what Glynda was talking about: him, and what he could only assume was the custody battle between Glynda and Ironwood. And given that he spent the majority of his childhood with the head General of the Atlesian Military as his sole parental figure, instead of the Vice-Headmistress of Beacon Academy, Glynda didn't have to tell him the outcome.

"So..." he spoke, trailing off into silence for a couple of seconds, while still looking down at the ground. "What happened, after you lost custody?"

"I left Atlas." Glynda replied, simply. "It just held so many bad memories for me. They weighed down on me far too much to stay there and be reminded of what James has been doing." Her eyes turned to Slate, who was looking up at his mother with slightly widened eyes, causing Glynda to panic slightly.

"N-not in that way!" the blonde Huntress hurriedly added to what she said before, losing her composure slightly for the first time of the few minutes that she had been alone with Slate. "It's not like that, Slate. Not at all. Don't think for a second that I enjoy the fact that I left you with James. I can't even begin to tell you how much I've regretted it, and I can't say anything other than... I'm sorry." Glynda's breath began coming in shorter bursts, as if she was about to cry.

Slate sat, looking slightly awkwardly between Glynda and the floor. He couldn't understand why, but as he saw Glynda holding back the tears, he felt his own heart sinking in turn.

He didn't really know what to say in reply to Glynda basically pouring her heart out to him, coming a hair's breadth away from crying, but felt relieved when she levitated a box of tissues over to where they were both sitting, and began dabbing at her eyes, seemingly beginning to calm down.

"It's... okay." Slate replied. "I'm not angry. I just wanted to know. Makes it easier to accept if I know what went on. You get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah." Glynda replied, a smile breaking out on her face. "I do. And I agree you completely." She took a breath to calm herself further, before continuing to speak. "I'm also... slightly worried. You know the Vytal Festival that's happening in a few months?"

"Yeah." Slate replied. "You were the one that told me about it. During class. You think I've forgotten?"

"Well, James is arriving with his students for the festival." Glynda continued, ignoring Slate's light jab. "I'm worried that he'll try and take you back to Atlas with him once the Festival is over, and I-I don't want that to happen. At all." she looked back at Slate again. "I don't want to be separated from my son, so soon after I've met him again."

"I don't want that either." Slate replied, very quietly, but not so quiet that Glynda couldn't hear him. The teacher's smile grew, and she stood up.

"Good." she replied. "Anyway, you're... you're free to leave, if you want, Slate."

She walked back to her desk and sat down at it, just as Slate got up, silently walked to the door, opened it, and left his mother alone, closing the door behind him.

A few minutes later, the door to Glynda's classroom opened again, and as opposed to her son, her boss, Professor Ozpin, walked through the door, and saw her taking deep breaths while trying (and seemingly, failing) to hold back the tears that she had been holding back when Slate was in the room with her.

"I trust that things went well, Glynda?" the grey-haired Headmaster asked, taking a sip from his thermos.

"You-you could say, Ozpin." Glynda replied, looking up at Ozpin as he stood in front of her. "What I feared would happen- well- didn't happen."

"It tends not to." Ozpin replied, sitting down on one of the tables. "I had a feeling that Mr. Branwen wouldn't push you away, if you handled the situation like I figured you would."

Glynda didn't verbally reply, simply electing to nod in agreement.

"You always did say that the hardest step in building a relationship was the first step, Professor." she remarked, drying her eyes and levitating the used tissues into the bin with her Semblance, as Ozpin nodded.

"That I did, yes." he replied, before turning around and looking at the window (which was open) momentarily, before looking back at Glynda. "Though I'm not exactly sure that some people would agree."

Right on cue, Ozpin and Glynda both heard the caw of a raven, with one of the birds flapping in through the open window. Both Professors watched it, with calmness and surprise practically written all over their respective faces, as it dived down behind a desk, and transformed out of sight... into Raven Branwen, who stood up and glared at both of them.

"How long did you know?" she asked, her crimson eyes shifting from Glynda to Ozpin.

"Since I first walked in." Ozpin replied. "You never did learn to conceal your presence, even if you're good at physically hiding yourself, Raven."

Raven's glare intensified tenfold, as Glynda spoke up.

"What are you doing here, Raven?" she asked, reaching for the riding crop that she kept in her boot and mentally preparing herself for a fight, as Raven had her scabbard full of Dust-blades, complete with sword-handle, with her.

"Just came here to see how you introduced yourself to my son, Goodwitch." Raven replied, calmly, while making no gestures that suggested that she was about to reach for her sword. "I have to say, it went differently from how I expected it to. I figured, given his strength, you'd try and rope him and Eirwen into Ozpin's little scheme, which would end up in them being sacrificed. Just like you've done with so many others."

"Do you really think that poorly of me, Raven?" Ozpin asked, holding a hand up in an attempt to pacify Glynda, who had stood up, looking like she'd like nothing more than to tear Raven limb from limb at what she had just insinuated.

"I wouldn't ask questions you already know the answer to if I were you, Ozpin." Raven replied, not even looking at her former Headmaster. "Nor would I try and throw innocent people into her line of fire without them fully knowing what's going on."

"Speaking of that," Ozpin cut across Raven as she was just about to start speaking again. "What would it take to change your mind. I know you think that she's unbeatable, but-"

Raven didn't even bother to stay and listen to whatever Ozpin was about to propose. In one fluid motion, she simply grabbed the handle of her sword, pulled it out, swung it to create a portal, and disappeared through it. Once the portal closed, Ozpin looked silently back at Glynda, who had sat down, taking deep breaths. However, her anger at Raven was still palpable.

Line Break

A sword whizzed through the air and clashed with a golden gauntlet, causing sparks to shoot off of both weapons. Slate, dressed in casual gear and carrying his two swords, along with his wing-pack strapped to his back, back-flipped away from Yang, who pulled her fist back to throw a punch, and fire a shell from Ember Celica towards him.

It was sparring class the next day, with Professor Goodwitch, and close to the end of the lesson. Several sanctioned battles had taken place throughout the last hour, all under the watchful eye of Slate's mom (Slate had only divulged that fact to his three teammates, and no-one else): Pyrrha vs. Azzurro (handily won by Pyrrha), Lapis vs. Ruby (an extremely even match that Lapis managed to come out on top in, once she'd gotten her hand on Ruby in order to disable her Semblance), Sky vs. Jaune (a battle that Jaune actually managed to win) and now Slate vs. Yang, a battle that Slate had been on top of for most of the match.

After activating his wings to float out of the way of the Ember Celica shell that flew his way, Slate looked to his Scroll, checking his Aura level: 92%.

"HEY!" Yang yelled from across the arena, firing another shot at her hovering opponent. "Don't ignore me in the middle of a fight, Slate!" Slate looked up, just in time to see the shot fly into his left wing and explode, sending bits of metal and carbon-fibre all over the arena, shocking the adoptive son of Raven enough for him to drop down onto the ground and retract his wings back into the pack on his back.

Or, at least, try to. His right wing retracted no problem, as it was undamaged, but the left one got momentarily stuck as he tried to retract it, leaving some of it trailing along the ground as he dashed at Yang, readying his swords for more attacks.

"How's this for 'not ignoring you'?" Slate asked, ducking under Yang's punch and slashing at her midsection with his right sword, following it up with an upward-diagonal swing with his left sword, along with a roundhouse kick to Yang's face that sent her flying backwards. However, Yang righted herself in mid-air and thrust her fists towards the ground, firing shots and using the recoil to keep herself airborne, before doing the same with shots fired behind her, allowing her to rocket towards her 'brother' at high speed, at around the time that Slate's left wing finally seemed to right itself and retract back into its pack.

As Yang descended towards Slate, he quickly sheathed his swords and reached out with both hands to grab Yang's outstretched arm. He then stepped to the side, and used the momentum to swing Yang down onto the ground, before swinging her around in a full circle and bodily THROWING her away, where she crashed into the wall and slid to the ground, dazed. Her Aura flashed yellow for a couple of seconds, then faded away.

"And that's the match!" Glynda stepped into the arena as the lights came on. "As you can see, students, Miss Xiao Long's Aura has... completely broken, meaning that the fight is over and that Mr. Branwen is the winner. Mr. Branwen-" Glynda looked to her son. "Please try not to get so... carried away, during combat situations, next time."

"Right, right." Slate replied, stretching. "Sorry. Just wanted to make sure that she couldn't get up. You know, like in the real world?"

Glynda narrowed her eyes, but didn't reply.

"Those wings of yours looked like they could use some repairs." she observed. "As your winning streak in these lessons has been exemplary, I'll let you leave early so you can fix them up."

"Thanks, Professor." Slate replied, walking over to his seat in the stands, picking up his bag, and walking out of the room, shutting the door behind him. The two minutes that it took him to walk to the workshop passed in silence, with the room being empty when he entered.

Slate slung the pack that contained his wings onto the nearest table and opened it, pulling out the left wing and inspecting the damage that had been done to it.

"Motherfucker." he muttered, under his breath. "Gonna need to buy some more carbon-fibre for that."

His musings were interrupted when the door to the workshop opened, and his three teammates walked in. They immediately spotted Slate, and walked over to him, chatting amongst themselves.

"How the hell is Pyrrha so good? It's like she was controlling me, as well as herself, in that fight!" Azzurro bemoaned. "I swear to the Gods, she's damn near invincible!"

"Agreed." Lapis replied. "I know I would've lost to Ruby if I hadn't managed to disable her Semblance." she added. "She was running rings around me."

"Yes, we know, Lapis." Eirwen replied. "But at least you were dodging her attacks. Well, most of them, at least. Hey, Slate. How bad's the wing damage?"

"Hey." Slate replied, allowing his girlfriend to wrap her arms around him from behind and deliver a kiss to his neck. "I'll have to get some more carbon-fibre to put on this wing. Lucky we're free for the rest of the day after Oobleck's lesson after lunch."

"Yeah." Eirwen replied. "Can you get some for me, too? As well as some more hair-dye, I've been running low recently."

"Sure." Slate nodded, before turning to Lapis and Azzurro. "You want anything from Vale?"

"I'm good." Azzurro replied. "How about you, Lapis?"

"I think I'll need some more Dust." Lapis replied, holding up her own weapon. "Fire Dust, please."

"Noted." Slate replied, as he turned back to his pack, and closed it up, before making to walk out of the workshop, before Eirwen called him back.

"Hang on a second, Slate." Slate stopped, and turned. "The three of us were talking, during your fight with Yang. About the Vytal Festival."

"Oh?" Slate blinked. "What about it?"

"Well, we were talking about whether we should put our names up to compete in the tournament for it, or not." Azzurro replied. "I think we should."

"Why?" Slate asked. "I don't see what the big deal is regarding it, really. Just seems like a colossal dick-measuring contest for the Heads of the four Huntsman Academies, really. And besides, you heard Goodwitch: if we competed, we'd be representing Vale. A Kingdom that, out of the four of us, three of us aren't even from."

Lapis shrugged her shoulders.

"That didn't stop Team RWBY from rushing to sign up the second your mom gave them the chance to." she replied. "I mean, only Ruby and Yang are from Vale, Weiss is from Atlas like you, and Blake… uh… I actually don't know which Kingdom she's from."

"Strictly speaking, she isn't from any Kingdom." Eirwen spoke up. "She's from Menagerie, formerly colony of Mistral. Same as me, really."

"You related or something?" Lapis asked. Eirwen ignored her teammate as she turned to Slate.

"I'm with Azzurro, Slate. I think it'd be fun to compete, even if only once. Besides, it'll only be as much about Kingdoms as you want to make it. But if you don't want to, then I get it."

Slate remained silent as he met the gazes of his three teammates, before sighing.

"Let's put it to a vote, I guess." he replied. "All those for competing in the tournament?"

Azzurro and Lapis immediately raised their hands. Eirwen's eyes shifted from them to Slate for a couple of seconds, before she slowly raised her hand as well.

"Three to one, Slate. Sorry." Azzurro replied, putting his hand down and patting his team leader on the shoulder.

"Fine." Slate replied, jerking his shoulder away from Azzurro, and picking up his wing-pack. "I'll talk to Professor Peach about it after we've had lunch. Just let me put this back in our room." he added, gesturing to the wing-pack in his hand.

"Right." Eirwen replied. "See you at lunch." she kissed her boyfriend again, before walking out of the room with Slate, Azzurro and Lapis, and turning left (along with Azzurro and Lapis) towards the Beacon cafeteria (pleasant smells were making their way throughout the school, indicating that food was being cooked for them, while Slate turned right, towards the dorms.

Line Break

"So, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more commonly known as the Faunus War-" Dr. Oobleck, one of the teachers at Beacon Academy, went through his lecture to the first-year Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training while zipping around the classroom like a certain blue hedgehog on super-steroids, before coming to a stop at his desk to refill his thermos flask. "Humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralising Remnant's Faunus population in Menagerie." he took another sip from his flask. "Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events!"

The entire class (with some notable exceptions, like Cardin (who was looking like he'd rather be anywhere else) and Jaune (who was half-asleep)) found themselves getting good exercise in their necks as they followed their immensely speedy teacher zip and zoom around the classroom.

"Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!" Oobleck kept talking, and kept zipping, before coming to a momentary stop to take a sip of his coffee. "Now, have any of you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

Eirwen, who was sat next to Slate, raised her hand. After a couple of seconds, Slate could see Blake doing the same.

"Dreadful." Oobleck shook his head, as Eirwen and Blake put their hands down. "Simply dreadful. My sympathies to you both. Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance which breeds violence." he took another sip of his coffee. "I mean- I mean-" it seemed that Oobleck was so enthusiastic about the subject that he was teaching (or rather, just so quick in getting his words out, that his mouth was moving faster than his brain) "I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang!"

Slate shot a sideways look at Eirwen, whose expression became momentarily sour at the mention of the White Fang.

He remembered Eirwen confiding in him her past before she found herself picked up and adopted by the Branwen Tribe: as the daughter of the White Fang's first High Leader, Ghira Belladonna, and a mistress of his, she was privy to all the inner goings-on of the organisation, which was initially created as a peaceful activist organisation that would work to improve relations between Humans and Faunus (and to improve the civil rights of the latter).

However, when results weren't as immediate as most members of the first incarnation of the White Fang wanted them to be, they became less peaceful, and a more violent faction of the organisation, led by Sienna Khan, rose up and began acting independently of the rapidly-weakening main sect that Ghira tried to hold together, to the point that Ghira surrendered to Sienna's faction, which became the new main sect as she took over as High Leader.

Almost immediately after, Eirwen chose to leave the White Fang, and eventually chose to run away from home in order to escape the wrath of the extremists. After making her way to mainland Anima, Eirwen was found and taken in by the Branwen Tribe, a few months after Slate was found by Raven, with the rest, as they say, being history.

"Now!" Oobleck's voice jolted Slate out of his momentary stupor. "Which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the War?" Slate knew the answer, but decided not to speak up. However, someone evidently had decided to put their hand up, as Oobleck asked "Yes?" to someone behind him.

"The Battle of Fort Castle." Slate could hear Weiss' voice behind him.

"Precisely!" Oobleck seemed to jump with happiness from the simple fact that someone got a question right in his classroom. "And, who can tell me the advantage that the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Out of the corner of Slate's eye, Jaune jolted upwards. Evidently someone (or something) had woken him up. Oobleck noticed this, and dashed over to Jaune's desk, standing right in front of him.

"Mr. Arc!" he called out. "Finally contributing to class! This is excellent, excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhh..." Jaune replied, clearly not knowing what the fuck he was talking about. "The answer... the advantage of the Faunus... had over that guy's stuff..."

Eirwen lightly jabbed Slate in the stomach with her elbow. When Slate looked to his girlfriend, she pointed up at Pyrrha, who was clearly making an attempt to coach Jaune on what to say. When Slate looked back at Eirwen, he could see her holding back the urge to burst out in giggles.

"Uh..." Jaune spoke, again, the cogs in his head turning unbearably slowly, before he came to his answer, one which he was certain was correct. "BINOCULARS!"

Oobleck merely sipped at his coffee, while half the class (Eirwen included) took that as their cue to burst out into laughter. Slate merely crackled a smile, as Jaune's answer was moderately funny, given what the ACTUAL answer was.

Pyrrha merely facepalmed.

"Very funny, Mr. Arc." Oobleck sighed, zipping back to his desk for another refill. "Cardin? Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than it is to train a soldier." Cardin replied, smirking as he looked disparagingly over at Eirwen, who hissed under her breath.

"Is that an admission that you're into bestiality, Cardin?" Slate retorted, loudly. "Gods, dude. I know you're a dick, but no need to tell us what you like sticking it into."

The entire class (except Cardin, who turned as orange as his hair from rage) burst out into hysterical laughter.

"Quiet, quiet!" Oobleck called. "Mr. Branwen, please don't get involved in this." Pyrrha put her hand up (while using the other one to stifle her giggles at Slate's remark). "Miss Nikos?"

"I have the answer." the red-headed first-year replied. "It's night-vision. Many types of Faunus are known to have better eyesight than humans in the dark."

"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep." Blake continued, as Oobleck nodded. "His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured." Blake turned to Cardin, a look equally as disparaging as the one that he had given Eirwen on her face. "Perhaps, if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Cardin growled and jumped up from his desk, fist clenched. However, Oobleck spoke up before a fight could break out.

"Mr. Winchester, please take your seat. You AND Mr. Arc can see me after class for additional readings. Now, moving on!"

Slate tuned out for the rest of the lesson after that, only speaking up to answer a question regarding the initial formation of the White Fang in the aftermath of the Faunus War. Once the lesson was over, he was among the first out of the door, with Eirwen, Azzurro and Lapis not too far behind.

"I think I'm gonna get an hour or two in the gym before heading to Vale." Slate informed his team while stretching his arms. "Might as well, since it's only, like 2:15pm."

"Fair enough." Eirwen replied, stretching herself and turning to Azzurro and Lapis. "Come on, you two. I heard Ruby got her hands on a copy of Grimm Reaper: Volume 4."

Lapis looked more excited than Eirwen or Azzurro when Slate's three teammates walked away in the opposite direction to their leader, who made a beeline straight for Beacon's gym.

After spending a couple of hours in there working out and sparring with combat-androids, Slate re-dressed himself and headed down to Vale, a list on his Scroll.

'Right. So... carbon-fibre.' he thought to himself, looking at the list. 'Some hair-dye for Eirwen, and some fire-Dust for Lapis.'

Just as he was about to put his Scroll back in his pocket, it vibrated as he got a text from an unknown number.

Can you get a copy of Grimm Reaper Volume 4 please? Lapis wants it so she won't have to go to Ruby to watch it in future. This is Azzurro btw.

"I guess I'm the team shopper, today." Slate muttered, as he stepped into the shop 'Disc Continued', to look for the movie that Azzurro wanted him to buy for Lapis, while also adding Azzurro into his contacts on his Scroll.

Finding and purchasing the movie that his teammates wanted wasn't too hard, and moving onto another item on his list (that being the hair-dye) was even less hard, given that Slate had brought enough cans of the stuff to know which brand of white hair-dye Eirwen preferred. Given that there was more of it available than there were in shops in Mistral that Slate went to from time to time, he elected to buy four cans of the stuff.

Next was the carbon-fibre, sheets of which Slate also brought four of. Strictly speaking, he only really needed one, but Eirwen had said that she wanted some, and now that he was in Vale, the idea of having spares of something (a luxury that was very hard to afford back in the Branwen Tribe) appealed to him greatly.

After thanking the shop-owner and handing him the money that he asked for, Slate left the shop, with the fibre-sheets, hair-dye and movie in a bag slung over his shoulder. He turned down a street-corner towards a Dust shop (the largest Dust shop in the area), and while walking towards it, he heard passing conversation from a couple of Faunus passing in the opposite direction to him.

"You catch how many cameras there are?"

"Yeah, only four. Two on the bottom floor, two on the top. Both only covers the entrance/exit and the cash register. Kinda crappy cameras, too, barely worth worrying about-"

"Are you barking mad? Cameras are always worth worrying about, you fucking idiot! What if some shithead recognises us from the cameras?"

"Alright, fine. We take out the cameras at the start of the operation-"

Slate widened his eyes, and turned his head slightly towards the two Faunus, one Dog and one Deer, as they continued their conversation (which seemed to be about an upcoming robbery of the shop), with it trailing away from his ears as he stopped on the pavement next to the Dust shop.

Getting an idea, Slate stepped into a secluded alleyway and stretched out his right arm, which began to glow a greyish-colour, as he focused his Aura into and around it. After a couple of seconds of this, a chunk of his Aura physically broke off of his body, and changed shape into that of a bird. A raven, to be specific, which opened its mouth to give out a silent caw, and flapped its wings.

This was Slate's Semblance (nicknamed Totem), which was the ability to manifest an avatar of his spirit animal (which he had nicknamed 'Rae') out of half of his Aura. This avatar, once outside Slate's body, would obey each and every one of his commands, and would protect Slate whenever he got into a combat situation.

However, a tradeoff of this was that, while Slate's spirit animal was outside his body, he only had half of the Aura that he would usually have to protect himself with, meaning that he had to go careful whenever he manifested Rae in a combat situation. On the other hand, Slate could summon Rae back inside himself, in order to receive a regenerative boost of Aura.

Slate was also able to see and hear through Rae's eyes and ears, but this required intense focus, as he'd only started working on this ability.

"Those two Faunus I heard talking about robbing this Dust shop." Slate muttered to Rae, while tapping the wall of the Dust shop he stood beside. "Find them. Follow them. Listen in on their plan. Then report back to me."

Rae nodded, and flapped its wings a couple of times to lift itself up and away from Slate, who sat down in the alleyway, out of sight and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, and focused on his Aura, on Rae, as it rose above the buildings and began to slowly fly over the streets of Vale.

After about ten seconds, Slate began to see through the eyes of Rae. It was slightly disorienting, having your senses of sight and hearing being basically plucked out of you and dumped into your spirit animal,

Rae turned its head from side to side, looking for the two Faunus that Slate had seen earlier, and eventually picked them out (easily identifying them by their dog-ears and antlers, respectively). They looked to be headed towards a secluded-looking warehouse, close by the docks. They headed inside, and Rae followed, silent as a ghost, swooping up to the rafters and nestling there. The room had a nice echo to it (demonstrated extremely well by an orange-haired man in a bowler-hat talking to four other Faunus, with a small girl with pink and brown hair, carrying a parasol, by his side).

Slate's vision (through Rae) flickered slightly as he felt the rumble of a large truck passing him by on the street, affecting his concentration slightly. However, he managed to refocus, and his vision (through Rae) returned.

"Alright, so how many cameras?" the orange-haired man asked, idly twirling a cane in one hand.

"Four, boss." the dog Faunus replied. "None of them cover the merch, so if we're smart-"

"Leave the smarts to the guys that don't slobber all the time, puppy." the man replied, using his cane to rub one of the dog Faunus' ears, before turning around and beginning to walk away. "Good work on the intel-collecting, by the way. I'll make sure to throw you a bone later."

Growling, the dog Faunus drew a sword and rushed towards Roman, intent on attacking him, but before he could go two steps, the small girl swung her parasol at the dog Faunus, hitting him in the stomach and causing him to double over in shock and pain. Before the guy could get back up, the girl had pulled out the handle of her parasol, revealing it to be a long, cylindrical blade which she used to stab the Faunus through the back, killing him instantly.

'Yeesh.' Slate thought, as the girl pulled her blade out of the Faunus' back, shook it to free it of blood, and sheathed it back into her parasol. 'That girl is brutal. Kinda cute though, not gonna lie.'

"Remember, everyone, we move tomorrow night!" the hat-wearing man called, not even looking back as three more Faunus came into view, and all expressed visual discomfort at the sight of one of their comrades dead on the floor, with a stab-wound in his back. "Neo, come along. And someone clean up the mess on the floor."

Slate's vision (through Rae) faded out, as his vision returned to his regular body. Standing up and holding his head for a couple of moments, as he felt slightly dizzy, he mentally commanded Rae to come back to him as he heard his Scroll vibrating, indicating that he had gotten a call. He pulled his Scroll out of his pocket and powered it on to see that Eirwen was showing up on the caller I.D, so he answered the call as Rae returned to him, swooping down and into his chest, restoring his Aura to full capacity.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Slate." Eirwen's voice could be heard through Slate's Scroll. "Just calling to ask if you'll be back soon."

"Huh?" Slate blinked, before what Eirwen said went through his head. "Oh, yeah. I will be. Just gotta get the Dust for Lapis, then I'll be back in, like, half an hour."

"Cool." Eirwen replied. She then hung up, while Slate stretched, and walked into the Dust shop to buy the Fire-Dust for Lapis.

Line Break

It was the next day, and in lieu of their triple-period of sparring, Glynda had elected to take the entire class of first-years out to Forever Fall, a mountainous forest on the northern outskirts of Vale. The trees were very much unlike any other forest on Remnant, as the leaves they produced were red (as opposed to the uniform green) all year around. It was theorized that the reasoning behind this was because of a large gathering of Dust beneath the surface, but this had never been proven.

"Just a reminder, students." Glynda called, as she led the four teams: Team RWBY at the front, with Team SEAL, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren in the middle, and Team CRDL (accompanied by Jaune, for some strange reason) bringing up the rear. "Though the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach requires samples of the red sap that forms within the trees deep inside this forest, and has asked me to bring you here for that objective." She came to a stop, as did the sixteen students behind her, before pulling out a jar of red fluid-looking stuff.

"Each of you is to gather one jar of sap. However, this forest is full of the Creatures of Grimm, so make sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Dismissed."

Slate silently led his teammates to the east side of the forest, smiling momentarily at Ruby as she waved to him, while she led her team to the north side of the forest, with Nora, Pyrrha and Ren going west, and Team CRDL (plus Jaune) going south.

"What do you think's up with Jaune?" Azzurro asked. "Has anyone else noticed that he's started hanging out a lot more with Cardin and his team, more than with his own team? You know, the one that he's supposed to lead?"

"I don't think there's anyone in school that hasn't noticed that, Azzurro." Lapis replied, as she pulled out one of the jars that had been provided to them by Glynda before they got off the airship, ten minutes before. "Just like Slate hanging out with himself more than with us."

"Better no-one at all than a bunch of bullies." Slate replied, as he began tying his jar to a large tree that he'd picked out, before walking over to Eirwen and helping her do the same. "Plus, what's wrong with just liking your alone time?"

"Nothing, really." Lapis replied, as she finished tying her jar to a tree that she'd picked out for sap-extraction. "Hey Slate, can I borrow one of your swords to hack into this tree?"

Slate's method of reply was to detach one of his swords from the belt that he wore, and to toss it over to Lapis, who caught it neatly, unsheathed it while thanking her leader, and beginning to hack at the bark of the tree. Slate and Eirwen did the same with their swords, while Azzurro made slightly slower progress with the edge of his discus.

Once they had all done the hacking, and sap was pouring into all four jars at a slow, but steady, manner, the four members of Team SEAL were sat around against non-hacked trees, in peaceful silence until Eirwen spoke up.

"So Slate, what did you say last night about a Dust shop possibly being robbed tonight?"

"Oh, that?" Slate looked over at his white-haired girlfriend, before casting a momentary glance at his jar of sap. "Well, I saw a couple of Faunus heading back to a warehouse by the docks, and talked about cameras, merch and 'moving tomorrow night'. Which is, uh, now tonight, I guess. They were with a couple of humans."

"That sounds horrifically stereotypical." Lapis remarked, casting a glance at her own jar of sap before looking back at her teammates and tossing the sword that she'd borrowed back to Slate. "Whoever you saw must've seen way too many gangster movies."

"I'm going to assume that that's meant to be an insult directed at whoever I saw." Slate replied. "But you're right." he turned to Eirwen. "Think it could be the White Fang, Eirwen?"

"I wouldn't put it past them to have stationed a group of operatives in Vale." Eirwen replied. "There's small groups like that in every major city on Remnant. Except Vacuo, I think. Though them working with a human doesn't sound right. Especially not one that would say what you say he said, Slate."

"It definitely doesn't make much sense." Azzurro replied, leaning back against a tree and sighing. "Though somehow, I think the fact that they'll be robbing a Dust shop tonight is more important than them working with a human."

"You're right." Eirwen replied, nodding. "You think we should go and try to stop them? I'm certain that we could take them."

"Agreed!" Lapis cried, clenching her fist. "Let's fuck those bastards up! No offence, Eirwen." Eirwen sniggered as Azzurro also voiced his agreement with what Eirwen said.

"Not so sure about 'we' if you're including yourself in that, Eirwen." Slate replied, immediately. "Aren't you a pretty big target for the Fang right about now?"

"Yeah." Eirwen replied, whipping her head around to fix her boyfriend with a hard look. "So?"

"So," Slate sighed. "If we were to show up at the Dust shop tonight as the White Fang are robbing it, with you there, they might just drop the Dust and go for you, and there's a chance, small as it might be, of you getting overwhelmed and taken by them." Slate looked down at the ground, covered in red leaves from the trees up above. "And I could never live with myself if that happened on my watch."

Eirwen's look softened slightly, as she looked down at the ground as well, and Team SEAL fell into silence once again, with the only disturbance being Lapis getting up to take her jar of sap off of the tree, as it was full.

Slate, Eirwen and Azzurro did the same, all within a few minutes of each other, and the quartet remained in silence, walking slowly back to the rendevous point, until Azzurro spoke up.

"Hang on, I just thought of something."

"What?"

Slate, Eirwen and Lapis all looked at their blue-haired teammate, who blinked.

"I mean, we all want to stop the Dust shop from being robbed, right?"

"I don't think that was ever in doubt." Slate replied. "I mean, I don't want to have to pay more Lien for Dust than I have to. Where are you going with this?"

"Well, Eirwen is the only one in the team that has wings that aren't broken, right?" Azzurro continued. "So, can't she do something like, I dunno, do recon from up-high while Slate, Lapis and I do the main Fang-stopping force on the ground?"

"I..." Slate paused. "That could work." he replied, slowly. "I mean, if Eirwen's okay with not being on the front lines of the inevitable fight."

"I am. To an extent." Eirwen replied. "I mean, it beats just sitting in our dorm and waiting for you all to come back."

"Then it's agreed." Lapis replied. "Eirwen can get her wings once we get back to Beacon, we'll head to Vale, and-"

Lapis' declaration was hurriedly shushed by the other three team members when they came within earshot of Glynda. The purple-haired Huntress-in-training fell silent as she and her teammates handed their four jars of sap to Glynda, and walked off. Though they didn't say a word to each other regarding what was going to go down tonight, they all knew in their heads what was going to go down.

Call it team-wide intuition or something.

Damn! Longest Son of the General chapter so far, by a long shot! That should serve as at least part of an apology for not updating this fic for three months, right? Sorry for that, by the way. Nothing else to offer up other than I wanted to work out where I was going to take this fic in the long-term, that it would work out with what's being put out in RWBY Volume 7 (contender for best Volume so far, by the way), and that I've been busy with college and my other works: particularly Nephalem and the now-discontinued Symbol's Son.

Sorry about that, by the way.

Anyway, that was the seventh chapter of Son of the General! We've heard about Glynda's past, had confirmation on whether or not Team SEAL will be involved in the Vytal Festival Tournament, seen Slate's Semblance (hope you all like it, it'll feature quite a lot in future chapters), and got set-up for shit that's going to go down between Team SEAL and the White Fang. By the way, regarding Slate's future harem: I'm considering replacing Velvet with another fan favourite RWBY girl.

Before you try and guess which one, all I have to say about it is... ice cream over rabbit stew every day of the fucking decade.

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Whether you did or you didn't, please leave a review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback, of any kind. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, or just have questions for me (because I'll be happy to answer them), let me know in a review, drop me a PM or hit me up on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)!

Next Time: Team SEAL vs. White Fang, Slate Meets Ozpin

Preview of Next Chapter:

"With all due respect, Ozpin," Glynda remarked. "I don't think that was the most productive meeting in the world."

Seeya!